Influence of ocean acidification on thermal reaction norms of carbon metabolism in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

Abstract

Under the present CO2 condition, the efficiency of biological pump mediating carbon sequestration is predicted to decline in the future because respiration tends to be more sensitive to rising temperature than is photosynthesis. However, it remains unknown whether the impacts of global warming on metabolic rates of phytoplankton can be modulated by elevated CO2 induced ocean acidification. Here we show that in the model diatom species Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Ea (activation energy) of photosynthesis (~0.5 eV) was significantly lower than that of respiration (1.8 eV), while CO2 concentration had no effect on the Ea value. Eh (deactivation energy) of respiration was increased to 2.5 eV, that was equivalent to Eh of photosynthesis in high CO2-grown cells and 28.4% higher than that in low CO2-grown ones. The respiration to photosynthesis ratio (R/P) was consistently higher in high CO2 condition, which increased with temperature at the beginning and subsequently decreased in both CO2 conditions. The ratio of R/P in high CO2 to R/P in low CO2 gradually increased with temperature above the optimal temperature. Our results imply that ocean acidification will aggravate the negative impacts or offset the alleviating effects of warming on the R/P ratio depending on the temperature range in Phaeodactylum tricornutum.